Jessica Plummer has lived her whole life in New York City, but she prefers to think of it as Metropolis. Her day job is in books, her side hustle is in books, and she writes books on the side (including a short story in Sword Stone Table from Vintage). She loves running, knitting, and thinking about superheroes, and knows an unnecessary amount of things about Donald Duck. Follow her on Twitter at @jess_plummer.
Comic book sales—and comic book readership—get bigger every year. And yet if you look at a list of “where to start with comics” or “the best comics of all time,” you’ll probably see the same handful of comics recommended over and over again. Comic book fans are extremely resistant to change, and like every other medium, comics have their classics—the books that longtime readers insist you must check off to be a real comics fan.
So what’s the problem? Well, many of those classics were published in the ’80s and maaaybe the ’90s. The ’80s were a time of massive change in the comics industry, where creators pushed boundaries to show that this medium could tell complex, serious, adult stories. (The dawn of all those annoying “Biff! Bam! Pow! Comics Aren’t Just For Kids Anymore!” headlines.) This is not to say that serious and complex work wasn’t being published in prior decades, because it absolutely was, but these groundbreaking comics of the ’80s did genuinely change the conversation.
But that was four decades ago. The books that were shocking deconstructions of the genre at the time have been so thoroughly incorporated into the mainstream that they are very hard to situate in their proper context anymore. Plus, most of them are riddled with sexism, racism, homophobia, and other isms that are often dismissed by comics fans because they’re “classics.” In particular, there’s a gleeful overuse of sexual violence, as if to prove how Important and Grown-Up these comics are. I love old comics, and I certainly don’t believe in canceling older works because they contain dated ideas, but I don’t think we need to lionize them beyond all reason, either.
The semi-official list of classics is also, of course, overwhelmingly created by white men. The industry has always been hard for women, BIPOC creators, and other marginalized identities to break into, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t exist then and don’t exist now. Can we all agree Alan Moore has gotten enough accolades and spread the love around a bit?
And, of course, the main problem with “you have to read these comics to be a comics fan” is…no, you don’t. In fact, the short version of this article is “Classic Comics You Can Skip: All of Them.” Read whatever you want, don’t read whatever you don’t want. Did you read some comics? Did you like them? Congratulations, you’re a comics fan.
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But if you’re looking for assurances of some major books you can skip, or suggestions for what to read instead, here are a few of my top picks:
1. Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
Okay, you either just shouted “Yes! Thank you!” at the screen or exited out of this article in indignation, but come on: if you know anything about comics, you know that Alan Moore would be the first to tell you not to read Watchmen, and also to get off his lawn and leave him alone. This 12-issue series, originally published from 1986-87, is a “realistic” deconstruction of the superhero concept and a condemnation of late Cold War-era politics, and probably the bestselling graphic novel of all time. Thirty-seven years removed from both the publishing and political context in which it first appeared, it’s been largely bled dry of meaning by the endless imitators who have tried to further deconstruct the superhero and somehow landed on “fascism is cool” instead. DC’s decision to trot out this dead horse a bunch in the past decade and tell more stories with the Watchmen characters, in opposition to previous agreements with Moore, didn’t help. Watchmen has its place as a historical linchpin, but there are no ideas in it that haven’t already been thoroughly absorbed into superhero media by now. (Most embarrassingly, the idea that using a nine-panel grid in your comic automatically makes it intelligent. Ahem.)
Oh, and you can skip The Killing Joke, too.
What to Read Instead
Bitch Planet by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Valentine De Landro
In a dystopian future, women who are deemed “non-compliant” are shipped to a brutal prison planet. Like Watchmen, it’s a dark and cynical take on human nature, a scathing political commentary, and heavily inspired by pulp and “lowbrow” media—in Bitch Planet’s case, “women in prison” exploitation films. Unlike Watchmen, its political commentary isn’t several decades out of date, and it obviously centers women instead of treating them as victims and props, while also engaging with the real-world systems of oppression that hit BIPOC and LGBTQ+ women especially hard.
2. The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson
In the dystopian future of…1986, Batman emerges from retirement to fight some of his old enemies, as well as the Gotham police and Superman, now a pawn of a corrupt US government. A shockingly dark take on Batman when it was published in 1986, TDKR, like Watchmen, has been so thoroughly absorbed into the mainstream comics discourse that it now looks relatively tame. It also managed to convince multiple generations of fanboys that Batman could beat Superman in a fight—and worse, that that’s even an argument worth having. We can blame TDKR almost entirely for Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and isn’t that condemnation enough?
If you must read a Frank Miller Batman comic, read Batman: Year One instead (but you don’t have to read that either).
What to Read Instead
New Gods by Jack Kirby
The dominant narrative about the history of comics claims that the genre “grew up” in the ’80s. The truth is that interesting, thoughtful, complex stories have been told with comic books, superhero and otherwise, since their birth in the ’30s. Jack Kirby’s 1971 magnum opus, the four books that make up his Fourth World saga, are a shining example. The heart of it is New Gods, which tells the story of two planets locked in eternal conflict—utopian New Genesis and dystopian Apokolips—and Orion, a young warrior god of New Genesis who is determined to destroy the ruler of Apokolips, the grim and terrifying Darkseid. Batman vs. Superman ain’t got nothing on this boss fight. Plus, Kirby tackles huge ideas: good vs. evil, nature vs. nurture, cynicism vs. hope, free will vs. fascism, the ethics of violence, the necessity of war, self-sacrifice vs. self-destruction, and more. Why settle for Batman scrabbling in the mud when you could have your third eye blown wide open instead?
(You should also read Mister Miracle and The Forever People. The fourth book in the Fourth World is Kirby’s run on Jimmy Olsen, which is just kind of weird.)
3. The Sandman by Neil Gaiman, Sam Keith, Dave McKean, and more
The original Sandman series was published from 1989 and 1996, and tells the story of “the Endless,” seven godlike anthropomorphizations of abstract concepts such as Dream and Death. The titular Sandman is another name for Dream, whose gradually unfolding tragedy makes up the bulk of the plot. There is also a sprawling universe of spinoffs. It’s a lot of comics, and that’s before you get into the recent allegations against Neil Gaiman. Let’s just skip it, yeah?
What to Read Instead
Saga by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples
You want a sweeping comics saga? Vaughn and Staples put the word right in the title! Saga tells the tale of a husband and wife from opposite sides of a galactic war, fleeing from authorities on both sides as they struggle to raise their daughter. It’s about love, parenthood, and war, obviously, epic in scope and with a diverse cast. Though currently on hiatus, there have been 68 issues published, almost as many as Sandman’s original 75, and Vaughn says there are 108 planned, so you won’t run out of reading material any time soon.
4. All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely
This 12-issue series was published from 2005 to 2008. Superman, having learned that he is dying, decides to complete 12 heroic feats to leave the world a better place before he goes. Unlike most of the comics on this list, All-Star Superman isn’t an exercise in relentless cynicism—it’s actually a quite uplifting story. However, like most Morrison comics, it delights in being self-referential and opaque, and sometimes I just don’t have the energy. It’s a love letter to the Silver Age—but that means we get a Silver Age Superman, more demigod than man, which isn’t my preferred take. And Lois Lane is reduced to a romantic prop, even—in fact, especially—in the issue where she gets superpowers of her own.
What to Read Instead
Superman Smashes the Klan by Gene Luen Yang and Gurihiru
If All-Star Superman draws inspiration from the Silver Age’s distant, paternalistic (patronizing) Superman, Superman Smashes the Klan combines the fumbling new Superman of the Golden Age with a modern, entirely human Clark Kent (well, not literally, but you know what I mean). Inspired by a Superman radio plot from the ’40s, this post-WWII-set story is about Roberta and Tommy Lee, two Chinese American kids whose family is being targeted by the Metropolis branch of the KKK. They team up with Superman in a moving story of immigration, anti-bigotry, and belonging. Like All-Star Superman, Superman Smashes the Klan draws deep from the well of Superman history to tell an uplifting tale of heroism, but on—to me—a much more intimate and warmer level.
5. Civil War by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven
When a team of superheroes accidentally causes a massive loss of life, the heroes of the Marvel universe split into violent factions: one in favor of superheroes being forced to register with the government rather than acting without oversight, and one opposed. This 2006-2007 crossover event combines Watchmen’s legacy of applying “realism” to superheroes with the politics of the post-9/11 surveillance state to create an entirely incoherent moral argument that makes every single superhero in the Marvel universe act like a total jerk. (The movie version has a different inciting event, but a similar “ethical nonsense to jerk” pipeline.)
Consider this spot on the list a stand-in for three different things: 1) post-9/11 cynicism about heroes (looking at you, Identity Crisis); 2) “event” comics that exist to force you to buy 20 tie-ins and “shocking” character deaths that will almost immediately be reversed (looking at you, Identity Crisis, Infinite Crisis, Final Crisis, Dark Crisis…); and 3) deeply unserious attempts to apply real-world logic to comic book universes, as if “sure, Steve Rogers can do whatever anonymous violence he wants because he’s so nice and sad” is actually a reasonable position to take (looking at you, MCU fandom circa 2016).
What to Read Instead
Ms. Marvel (2014 and 2015 series) by G. Willow Wilson, Adrian Alphona, and more
Okay yes, this is completely tonally different from Civil War, but that’s why I picked it. As you can probably guess by this point on the list, I do not see the point of reading superhero comics if you are unrelentingly cynical about superheroes. Instead, I suggest the utterly joyous first few years of Kamala Khan, the best new character of the 2010s. Rather than tying itself into knots trying to apply the real world to superheroes, Ms. Marvel gives us a heroine whose enthusiasm and heroism and even flaws read as entirely believable in her larger-than-life (embiggened!), vibrantly colored, beautifully unbelievable world.
If you must read an event comic, read JLApe, where everyone in the Justice League turns into an ape. It’s not good or anything, but that’s not the point.
I love comics, and I love comics history. I think all of my “anti-recommendations” on this list have value, even if just as historical artifacts at this point.
But the world of comics is so much bigger than the same repetitive recommendation lists you’ll find all over the internet. Whether it’s my alternate recommendations here or something else entirely, I hope you’ll find comics you love, whether they’re considered classics or not.
And remember: if you love comics, any comics, you’re a comics fan.
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